PG 98 Castelvetrano / San Giuseppe Jato

Castelvetrano, Sicily, was operational from March 1942 to the end of September 1942. From September 1942 the prisoners were transferred to San Giuseppe Jato, about 30 miles (48km) northeast of Castelvetrano.

According to camp lists from the Royal Army General Staff, Prisoner of War Office, PG 98 San Guiseppe Jato, Sicily, held 2 officers and 81 troops as at 31st December 1942. As at 31st March: 110 troops.

PM 3550

More information about this camp can be discovered here:

https://campifascisti.it/scheda_campo.php?id_campo=330

Translation for Campi Fascisti main page:

Castelvetrano – Camp for prisoners of war n. 98
Castelvetrano (Trapani) – Italy
Camp type: Prisoner of war camp in operation March 1942 until September 1942
Source: DPG01
History: To transfer PCs from North Africa.
Built in a malarial area, the transfer to San Giuseppe Jato is ordered (see PGCV02)
In PGCV01 news of the death of an English pg without however specifying the cause (February 1942)
In PGCV04 and 05 (names of two prisoners who escaped and captured on the same day) it is indicated as campo di Buturro (from the internet Buturro appears to be a district of Castelvetrano).

Note: Research on Italian prisoner of war camps is still ongoing (November 2012). The information reported here is taken from some documents conserved in the Historical Office of the Army General Staff and concerns only the period from March 1942 to March 1943. The data on this sheet are therefore incomplete and still to be verified.

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PG abbreviation

The full title is ‘Campo Concentramento di Prigioniere di Guerra’ (prisoner of war concentration camp). They were not concentration camps in the normal sense of the word. Camps were normally prefixed PG, but could be referred to as CC, Campo or Campo PG. The exception was the 2 Dulags and 1 Stalag within Italy, which were German controlled transit centres for POWs being transferred to Germany. The camps were originally known by their place names, and numbers were not introduced until early 1942. There are some camps with no numbers, perhaps they closed before early 1942?

PM abbreviation

Camps in Italy were divided into postal areas, each area designated ‘PM [number]’. PM translates to ‘Posta Militare’, meaning ‘military mail’. The number indicated the central postal reception area for the camps’ mail.